I was at the local grocery store last night. Sunday night just before closing and produce was stocked to the gills. Berries and greens were especially untouched, but everything else was at least 80℅ full as well.
It was very odd to be there on a Sunday night with it looking like it does on a typical Saturday morning. A tight department with smart buyers should look basically ransacked by then, with a lot of out-of-stocks if the store had decent traffic over the weekend.
Point is, since we’re lacking all but the most generic info, most people are just playing it safe by avoiding fresh produce altogether, and the state of things right now is about to produce some severe knock-on effects for fresh foods.
Grocery store dumpsters will be full in a few days. Next it will be the produce warehouses, and that shockwave will ripple all the way back to the producers/farms within weeks. Not just the waste, but orders in general will slow and the industry will suffer overall shrinkage. Even if the outbreak ends tomorrow – if the ambiguity continues, a general lack of trust will linger for quite some time, fresh foods may become more expensive for a while, and the supply chain will be destabilized.
I was at the local grocery store last night. Sunday night just before closing and produce was stocked to the gills. Berries and greens were especially untouched, but everything else was at least 80℅ full as well.
It was very odd to be there on a Sunday night with it looking like it does on a typical Saturday morning. A tight department with smart buyers should look basically ransacked by then, with a lot of out-of-stocks if the store had decent traffic over the weekend.
Point is, since we’re lacking all but the most generic info, most people are just playing it safe by avoiding fresh produce altogether, and the state of things right now is about to produce some severe knock-on effects for fresh foods.
Grocery store dumpsters will be full in a few days. Next it will be the produce warehouses, and that shockwave will ripple all the way back to the producers/farms within weeks. Not just the waste, but orders in general will slow and the industry will suffer overall shrinkage. Even if the outbreak ends tomorrow – if the ambiguity continues, a general lack of trust will linger for quite some time, fresh foods may become more expensive for a while, and the supply chain will be destabilized.